Free Republic

Prior to President Donald Trump authorizing targeted strikes against Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday, federal agents and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers have been arresting Iranian nationals, nearly all men, in the U.S. illegally. In the last few months, federal prosecutors have also brought terrorism charges against Iranians, including those in the U.S. working for the Iranian government. Iran is a designated state sponsor of terrorism. Iranian nationals illegally in the country are considered “special interest aliens” under federal law. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Sunday issued a warning to all Americans to be on a heightened...

Nearly a dozen aviation insiders, including a whistleblower who filed a federal complaint, asserted that diversity initiatives cause unneeded distractions.. For one veteran airline captain, a routine flight to Denver changed her view about aviation safety—but not because of an in-flight crisis. Rather, the captain heard a story that—for the first time in her decades-long career—made her uneasy about putting her loved ones on a plane. During a 2024 conversation, a flight instructor described unusual steps managers had taken to salvage the career of a young female trainee pilot. The instructor described an “egregious” example of the apparent relaxing of...

Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday experienced its fourth communications outage in less than a month. The Federal Aviation Administration says this latest outage lasted for two seconds at the Philadelphia air traffic control center, also known as TRACON, that handles flights into and out of Newark. The agency, which is investigating the latest outage, insists the system remains safe. But recent equipment failures, staffing shortages, and aging infrastructure have raised questions. Randy Babbitt served as FAA administrator from 2009 to 2011 under then Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. In an interview with NJ Spotlight News, Babbitt said he is not...

The runway lights were out, a weather alert system wasn’t working and there was heavy fog at a San Diego airport when a pilot who had flown across the country made the decision to proceed with landing but came up short and crashed into a neighborhood, killing all six aboard the aircraft, investigators said Friday. Investigator Dan Baker of the National Transportation Safety Board said officials will work over the next year to determine what caused the Cessna 550 Citation to crash just before 4 a.m. local time Thursday. The jet was carrying a music executive and five others. No...

I’ve been an air traffic controller since I was 18, and as a flier, I would avoid Newark. Lately, I’ve been flying out of JFK or LaGuardia, because it’s safer, and there’ve been some crazy-ass delays at Newark. I started telling family and friends last summer to avoid Newark like the plague, because we knew it was going to be bad, we just didn’t think it was going to be this bad with all of the technological issues. This is a busy area, with the three major airports and all these satellite airports — it’s like a bee’s nest. Back...

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a radio failure at the Denver Air Traffic Control Center, which covers approximately 285,000 square miles of airspace covering parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. The outage temporarily affected communications Monday. According to the FAA, both transmitters that cover a segment of airspace went down around 1:50 p.m., causing a loss of communications to part of the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center for about 90 seconds. The FAA said the outage affected some flights approaching Denver International Airport. They said the controllers used another frequency...

Denver airport’s air traffic control was reportedly struck by a staggering six-minute outage earlier this week after several radio transmitters suddenly went dark. The frequency outage meant that as many as 20 pilots were unable to reach air traffic controllers as they descended into Denver International Airport on Monday afternoon, ABC7 reported, citing sources. A controller eventually made contact with one aircraft on a “guard line,” which is typically only used when a pilot is in distress. That pilot was then able to contact other nearby planes and tell them to switch radio frequencies, the sources said. At the time...

A “hotline” between air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the Pentagon, intended to coordinate aircraft, has not worked since March 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration revealed in a congressional hearing Wednesday.The FAA was not aware the direct line was broken until a May 1 incident where a helicopter circled the Pentagon and caused two flights to abort landings, Franklin McIntosh, the FAA’s deputy chief operating officer testified.

May 11 (UPI) — Operations are returning to normal after a unrelated equipment issues prompted ground stops at Newark Liberty and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airports Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced. “Technicians are working to address the problem,” the FAA said of the Newark issue. “The FAA briefly slowed aircraft in and out of the airport while we ensured redundancies were working as designed,” the agency said on X. “Operations have returned to normal.” As of Sunday afternoon, at least 150 flights to and from Newark were delayed and 80 were canceled. The FAA issued the ground stop Sunday morning...

A ground stop was ordered at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on Sunday due to an equipment outage. The Federal Aviation Administration issued the ground stop at 10:40 a.m. ET on Mother's Day. 'Departures to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International are grounded due to equipment outage,' the agency said. The ground stop was issued for flights scheduled to leave from East Coast area airports bound for Atlanta, reported Atlanta News First. Arrivals were slowed down due to 'a runway equipment issue,' and technicians worked to fix the issue. The ground stop was lifted shortly before 12:30 p.m., and departures continued to be delayed by...

Nearly 80 flights have been cancelled and more than 40 delayed at Newark Liberty International Airport after yet another an equipment outage brought more chaos to the NYC-area hub. A 45-minute ground stop was ordered on Sunday morning by the FAA following the outage at Newark’s air traffic control facility, officials told WABC. It comes after a radar malfunction on Friday morning brought Newark to a standstill briefly on Friday morning. The number of flights in and out of the airport will be reduced for the “next several weeks,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” following travel...

Air Traffic Control lost radar for 90 seconds at Newark Airport on Friday. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), there was a telecommunications outage at Newark Liberty International Airport. “There was a telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport airspace. The outage occurred around 3:55 a.m. on Friday, May 9, and lasted approximately 90 seconds,” the FAA said on Friday morning. ... United Airlines pulled 35 round-trip flights a day following a radar outage at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey...

If SpaceX can clean up Starship's reliability issues, the company is free to fly ... the company was limited to 5 launches, but now it will be able to conduct up to 25 Starship launches and landings during a calendar year.

As delays continue to roil travel at Newark Liberty International Airport, United Airlines Inc.’s CEO announced plans to reduce its schedule. Air traffic controller staffing issues have been at the center – combined with technology failures and a runway rehabilitation project – that led to a nightmare scenario over the last week for travelers. The situation led United Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby to cancel 35 flights per day from the Newark schedule, beginning over the weekend. “For many years, United has been very clear and vocal about the need to fix the Air Traffic Control system in EWR. While...

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has launched a new cash incentive program aimed at recruiting and retaining air traffic controllers, he announced Thursday. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will give $5,000 bonuses to all academy graduates and new hires that complete initial qualification training. Academy graduates assigned to 13 facilities that have faced additional hiring struggles will get $10,000. Additionally, certified professional controllers who are younger than 56 and opt not to retire when eligible will receive bonuses equal to 20 percent of their basic pay for each year they continue to work. The new incentives are being offered for a...

This turbulence is on the ground. United Airlines cut 35 daily round-trip flights at Newark Liberty International Airport Friday, citing Federal Aviation Administration technology failures and staffing issues that resulted in five days of excessive delays — including one flight from Boston that was set back more than five hours. The cancellations — which are about 10% of the carrier’s service at the major East Coast airport — starts this weekend. The move comes after nearly one-quarter of all FAA air traffic controllers for Newark Airport (EWR) “walked off the job” this week due to malfunctioning technology, further compounding chronic...

Citing the hundreds of drones that flew around military sites last year, defense officials warn that the Pentagon is still unprepared to defend its installations—but say a new standard operating procedure, and expanded authorities, could help. “Mass drone incursions over Joint Base Langley-Eustis in December 2023 reminded us that the homeland is no longer a sanctuary, and should our adversary choose to employ drones for surveillance or even attack, we would not be prepared to adequately defend our homeland and only marginally capable to defend our military installations,” Rear Adm. Paul Spedero, vice director for operations for the Joint Staff,...

After my story on the FAA’s hiring scandal went viral, many of the people impacted and involved in bringing it to light reached out to me to share their stories in detail. While I initially intended to publish this in another outlet, after a couple of instances of radio silence and with life getting in the way, I put it on the shelf. Now, in the wake of the tragic plane crash on January 29 and a resurgence of focus on this topic, it’s more important than ever to get the story straight. I neither have nor claim to have...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is implementing a data privacy policy that allows people with private jets to hide travel information from the public. “Starting today, they can submit a request through the Civil Aviation Registry Electronic Services (CARES) to withhold this information from public display on all FAA websites.” In its statement, the FAA said the data protection decision was taken based on a privacy provision included in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024. The provision allows aircraft owners to request that certain personally identifiable information not be made publicly available via FAA websites. “The FAA will publish a...

Two air traffic controllers traded punches when a shocking fight erupted inside the tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. The facility is already under massive scrutiny following January’s deadly midair collision between an American Airlines flight on final approach and an Army helicopter. And trouble flared again Thursday when a pair of on-duty tower controllers got into a blazing argument before one threw a punch at the other, a source tells us. By the time the brawling colleagues were separated, there was blood spattered over a control console, according to our insider. The tower would likely...